Lady: Impossible (71 page)

‘We could go back to mine,’ Abby suggests, looking back and forth between my mother and me. ‘I have cake, champagne and another season of
The Only Way is Essex
.’

‘I’ll take the first two,’ my mother says, deadpan. ‘No idea what the third is.’

I could complain, or I could go along with it.
 

It’s the latter. ‘Done. Let’s go.’

Abby immediately rejoices. ‘Yes! And Blair can hang out with us too.’

At first, I think Blair hasn’t heard the comment, but he eventually responds in a less than enthused manner.
 

‘I might just stay on duty.’

‘No,’ my mother and I say in unison.

Finally, we’re in agreement on something.
 

‘Well, now you have to go off duty,’ I tell him.
 

Cue heavy sigh. He’s either frustrated with traffic, or not exactly comfortable with being my boyfriend in this context.
 

Time for more needling, though I think men tend to call it nagging. ‘You’re going to have to bond with them at some point.’ I point at Abby and my mother. ‘They’re part of the deal.’

I can see from here that he’s wavering.
 

‘All right, Abby,’ he says. ‘Where do you live exactly?’

She actually does a ‘jolly hockey sticks’ arm swipe before leaning forward to say, triumphantly: ‘You called me Abby! Hello!’

‘Yes, hello. Nice to meet you.’

My mother is smirking. Smirking is a sign of lucidity, though I suppose there are crazy people who smile for no reason.
 

‘I love you, Blair,’ I throw in, happily. ‘Just saying.’

He grins and gives me a wink in the rearview mirror. He really can be agreeable at times.
 

I could get used to this. I’m going to get used to this. Because even amongst Abby’s confusing directions and Mother’s mumblings about Al, I now feel stable enough to not have a breakdown over this latest family crisis. That stability should mostly be credited to Blair.
 

I can only hope he knows what he’s getting into. Then again, maybe I don’t even know what
we’re
getting into. Either way, we’ll just have to figure it out as we go, because failure is simply not an option here. This is going to work, whatever it takes.
 

In the meantime, there’s a champagne brunch on the agenda. Cake, drinks and loved ones? Drama aside, I’ll definitely toast to that.
 

Acknowledgements

Thank you to my Series Editor, Tanya Brown, for helping me craft Millie’s world. It’s our world now. Never mind the twelve hour time difference or the fact you’re on the other side of the planet… Millie is our meeting point.
 

*

To Sophie McClelland, my Copy Editor, thank you for your red pen and infinite patience. You’re an absolute gem. I hope to entertain you with misplaced Americanisms and Australianisms for at least another book.

*

To my sister, Maddy, thank you for putting up with all my crazy. No thanks for interrupting me when I was writing the very last sentence of this novel – no, Sean Paul’s ‘Get Busy’ is not a legitimate reason to disturb my process.
 

*

I’d also like to thank Susan Trammel and Jennifer DeMaio for helping me with my writing over the last several years.
 

About the Author

B.D. Fraser is a law graduate of the University of Western Australia. She also holds an Arts degree (majoring in Political Science & International Relations) from the same university, as well as having successfully completed Summer Intensive Studies (Graphic Design) at Parsons The New School for Design in New York.

She enjoys well scripted television, questionably scripted television, luxury fashion accessories, Formula One racing and American soft serve fro-yo.

*

For further information (including updates on Book 2) visit
bdfraser.co.uk
 

or follow on Twitter
@bdfraser_uk

How fortunate that he’s been trained by an exemplary hotel. Still, it would be wise to conduct a reference check with the one of the managers there.